When we first reviewed the AMD Phenom II X2 550 processor back in May 2009, we suggested that it was the best dual-core processor money could buy, and at just $100 US on launch day it did not take a great deal of money to own one. Since then AMD has not released a faster Phenom II X2 processor, though they do plan to release the Phenom II X2 555 very soon.

Therefore the Phenom II X2 550 has remained AMD’s flagship dual-core processor for about 8 months now. Until recently Intel has had nothing to counter the Phenom II X2 550 with, as the Core 2 Duo E6000 and E7000 series processors are no match, while the E8000 series is far too expensive. Recently Intel did launch a new batch of high-performance dual-core processors in the form of the Core i5 600 and Core i3 500 series.

The Core i5 650 is the cheapest processor of its series, though at $195 US it is considerably more expensive than the Phenom II X2 550. Then there is the Core i3 530, which is the cheapest processor in its series, though again at $125 US it is more expensive than AMD’s dual-core flagship processor. There is however one more new Intel dual-core processor, known as the Pentium G6950 which is priced at $100 US.

This means the Pentium G6950 is in essence Intel’s answer to the Phenom II X2 550, but can their slowest and cheapest dual-core processor defeat AMD’s most expensive and fastest? The Phenom II X2 550 really is an impressive processor because other than losing a pair of cores, it is identical to the Phenom II X4 955 processor in every single way.

The Pentium G6950 on the other hand is a cut-down version of a processor, which is a cut-down version of another processor. Starting with the Core i5-600 series, we have processors ranging from 3.20 – 3.46GHz in frequency with Turbo Mode and a 4MB L3 cache. The next step down takes us to the Core i3 500 series, which includes processors operating at 2.93GHz and 3.06GHz without Turbo Mode, while the L3 cache capacity is still 4MB.

Then we have the lone Pentium G6950 which operates at 2.80GHz without Turbo Mode and with a smaller 3MB L3 cache. The memory speed has also been dropped from the 1333MHz of the Core i5/i3 processors to just 1066MHz. However other than these few changes the Pentium G6950 is essentially the same as a Core i3 processor, and clock for clock there should not be a great deal of difference between them in terms of performance.

Rather than test these processors on high-end AMD and Intel motherboards that cost upwards of $200 US, we are comparing them on motherboards you are more likely to use them on. This means for AMD the affordable ASUS M4A785T-M/CSM motherboard featuring the AMD 785G with a price tag of $85 US. Representing Intel we have the Gigabyte H55M-UD2H which is priced at $100 US.

Intel Test System Specs - Intel Pentium G6950 (2.80GHz) - x2 2GB DDR3-1066 G.Skill (CAS 6-7-7-20) - Gigabyte H55M-UD2H (Intel H55) - OCZ GameXStream (700 watt) - Seagate 500GB 7200-RPM (Serial ATA300) - ASUS GeForce GTX 285 (1GB) Software - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) - Nvidia Forceware 196.21

AMD Test System Specs - AMD Phenom II X2 550 (AM3) - x2 2GB DDR3-1066 G.Skill (CAS 6-7-7-20) - ASUS M4A785T-M/CSM (AMD 785G) - OCZ GameXStream (700 watt) - Seagate 500GB 7200-RPM (Serial ATA300) - ASUS GeForce GTX 285 (1GB) Software - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) - Nvidia Forceware 196.21

When at idle the Intel Pentium G6950 system consumed 24% less power than the AMD Phenom II X2 550 system. Under full load the situation did improve for AMD, as the Pentium G6950 system now only consumed 11% less power. Being a 32nm processor the Pentium G6950 does have an advantage over the Phenom II X2 550 in terms of power consumption, as the AMD processor is built using the 45nm design process.

Although both platforms utilize dual-channel DDR3-1066 memory, the AMD Phenom II X2 550 was found to have around 11% more bandwidth at its disposal when testing with SiSoftware Sandra 2010. However this bandwidth advantage comes from the 11% clock speed advantage.

This is evident when increasing the operating frequency of the Pentium G6950 from the default 2.80GHz to the 3.10GHz of the Phenom II X2 550 processor. Now the Pentium G6950 is able to match the Phenom II X2 550 and in fact was a little faster, as the DDR3 memory is also slightly overclocked.

EVEREST Ultimate Edition has also been used to measure the bandwidth performance of these budget processors. Again we find that the AMD Phenom II X2 550 does have more bandwidth at its disposal thanks to a greater operating frequency.

The read test indicated that the Phenom II X2 550 was 4% faster, while the write test hinted at a 14% performance advantage. Again overclocking the Intel Pentium G6950 processor to 3.10GHz nullified the clock speed advantage of the Phenom II X2 550, now giving the Pentium G6950 a slight advantage.

Using EVEREST Ultimate Edition we also measure each processors L2 cache performance, which is an internal bandwidth test unlike previous memory tests. As you can see the 256KB L2 cache of the Pentium G6950 is around 29% faster than the 512KB L2 cache of the Phenom II X2 550. While at the same frequency of 3.10GHz the Pentium G6950 is considerably faster.

SPECviewperf v10 provided us with mixed results. The AMD Phenom II X2 550 was 5% faster than the Intel Pentium G6950 for the 3dsMax test, while the Pentium G6950 was 11% faster when running the Maya test. However when we overclocked the Pentium G6950 to 3.10GHz it was able to beat the Phenom II X2 550 in both tests.

The CINEBENCH R10 results are very close between the two processors, with the Intel Pentium G6950 just beating the AMD Phenom II X2 550 by a 6% margin in the multi-threading test. However when testing on a clock-for-clock basis the Pentium G6950 was 17% faster.

WinRAR provided us with some interesting results that clearly favored the AMD Phenom II X2 550. The Phenom II X2 550 was 35% faster than the Intel Pentium G6950 when measuring multi-threading performance. More over when testing clock-for-clock performance the Phenom II X2 550 was still 24% faster than the Pentium G6950.

In the past we have found that Microsoft Excel 2007 is a program that AMD does not fare well in and this is once again the case when comparing the Intel Pentium G6950 and AMD Phenom II X2 550 processors. The Pentium G6950 completed the MonteCarlo test 16% faster than the Phenom II X2 550. Furthermore, when overclocked to 3.10GHz, the Pentium G6950 became 20% faster.

When conducting our own real-world testing with WinRAR we found that the AMD Phenom II X2 550 still performed very well. When compressing a 4.5GB video file the Phenom II X2 550 was 8% faster than the Pentium G6950 and 15% faster when compressing the Windows 7 DVD.

Interestingly, when overclocked to 3.10GHz for a clock-to-clock comparison, the Pentium G6950 was now 6% slower than the Phenom II X2 550 when compressing the Windows 7 DVD, while it was just 1% faster when working with the 4.5GB video file.

Adobe Photoshop CS4 is another program where the Intel processors generally perform much better. The Intel Pentium G6950 was able to apply the extrude filter to a high resolution image 4% quicker than the Phenom II X2 550. However it was the stained glass filter that gave AMD trouble, as the Pentium G6950 completed this task 29% faster. Overclocking the Pentium G6950 further improved these results, giving Intel and even greater performance advantage.

Using HandBrake we converted a 560MB mkv file to the mp4 format and measured the frame rate each processor was able to achieve. The Intel Pentium G6950 and AMD Phenom II X2 550 processors both achieved 28fps in this test. However if you are interested in clock-for-clock performance, then the Pentium G6950 was 11% faster.

The x264 HD Benchmark 3.0 is used to measure the performance of a 2-pass 1280x720 encoding, again displaying the results in a frame per second format. The AMD Phenom II X2 550 was 7% faster in this test when compared to the Intel Pentium G6950. However overclocking the Pentium G6950 to 3.10GHz gave it the edge, as it was now 4% faster than the Phenom II X2 550.

Using TMPGEnc we converted a 715MB avi file to the mpg format and measured the time it took for each processor to complete this task. The Intel Pentium G6950 and AMD Phenom II X2 550 both completed this task in just under 16 minutes. However when overclocked the Pentium G6950 did complete the task 8% faster than the Phenom II X2 550.

Something that we have noticed about the AMD Phenom II processors since their release is that they are extremely good when it comes to gaming. This is again evident when pitching the AMD Phenom II X2 550 against the Intel Pentium G6950 in Unreal Tournament 3. At 1024x768 the Phenom II X2 550 was 28% faster than the Pentium G6950.

When overclocked the Pentium G6950 was still defeated by the Phenom II X2 550, which remained 16% faster. However at 1920x1200 where the GPU becomes a greater limiting factor on performance, the Phenom II X2 550 is just 7% faster than the Pentium G6950 and 1% quicker than the overclocked configuration.

Although the performance margins are smaller when testing with Street Fighter IV, the AMD Phenom II X2 550 was still faster than the Intel Pentium G6950. At 1024x768 the Phenom II X2 550 lead by an 8% margin, while at 1920x1200 we saw a 7% margin favoring the AMD processor. However overclocking the Pentium G6950 did level the playing field, allowing the Intel processor to gain the upper hand.

Finally the last game we tested with was Far Cry 2 and here the AMD Phenom II X2 550 again had a serious performance advantage. At 1024x768 the Phenom II X2 550 lead the Pentium G6950 by a 12% margin, which was reduced to an 11% margin at 1920x1200. Overclocking the Pentium G6950 allowed it to match the performance of the Phenom II X2 550 at 1920x1200, while it was still 2fps slower at 1024x768.

What we can also say with absolute certainty is that the Pentium G6950 is a better overclocker than the Phenom II X2 550. While the Phenom II X2 550 is no slouch, as we were able to reach a stable overclock of 3.90GHz without too much effort, the Pentium G6950 on the other hand had no trouble reaching a stable 4.0GHz and went on to achieve an incredible 4.60GHz air-cooled overclock. It is worth noting that both the AMD and Intel overclocks did require upgraded air-coolers.

So Intel wins the power consumption and overclocking battle, but what about general performance? When operating at their default clock frequencies without any tuning, the Pentium G6950 proved to be the better processor in applications such as Microsoft Excel 2007 and Photoshop CS4, while the Phenom II X2 550 had the edge in WinRAR.

When comparing clock-for-clock performance the Pentium G6950 was considerably faster in Excel and Photoshop, while the WinRAR performance was much the same. The encoding benchmarks showed very similar results between these two budget processors, with the only real win here going to the Phenom II X2 550 in the x264 HD Benchmark 3.0 test. However, when comparing clock-for-clock performance the Pentium G6950 won all three encoding benchmarks quite convincingly.

Where AMD did appear to have the edge was in gaming performance. When paired with a Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 graphics card, which is still quite powerful by today’s standards, the Phenom II X2 550 did provide considerable performance gains over the Pentium G6950, even at 1920x1200.

Still the clock-for-clock data did not make the Phenom II X2 550 appear as impressive, with the Pentium G6950 either matching or beating the AMD processor at 1920x1200. There is another thought worth considering when discussing the gaming performance of these processors.

It is unlikely either processor will be coupled with such a high-end and expensive graphics card. This being the case, it is also very likely that GPU limitations will come into play much earlier, and as such will reduce the performance margin between the processors. While more processing power is always handy when gaming, we are not sure that there would be much of a difference between these processors when paired with a graphics card such as the Radeon HD 4770 or GeForce 9800 GT.

Whereas applications such as Microsoft Excel and Adobe Photoshop are entirely CPU dependent and the speed at which the processor can complete various tasks will always play a vital role. Still, that is not to take anything away from the AMD Phenom II X2 550, as it is clearly a superior processor when it comes to gaming.

When it comes down to it, each processor had its fair share of wins and losses, and in their standard form we failed to pick a real winner. However if you plan to overclock your AMD Phenom II X2 550 or Intel Pentium G6950 processor then we feel the latter is the best option. When operating at the same frequency the Pentium G6950 was more often than not faster than the Phenom II X2 550. Furthermore, as we mentioned earlier, the Pentium G6950 is an easier and better processor to overclock.

However the issue of which processor you should choose is far more complex than just picking the better performing processor. The platform as a whole must be taken into consideration and again depending on your needs either processor is a viable choice. The Intel Pentium G6950 features on on-die GPU which does deliver similar performance to that of the Radeon HD 4200 graphics processor featured in the AMD 785G chipset.

As it stands there is no real advantage to having the GPU on-die and it saves the user no money at all. There are a number of chipset options for the Phenom II X2 550 processor that feature integrated graphics, while the 785G is the most recent. Currently motherboards sporting this chipset are selling anywhere from $60 - $100 US.

On the other hand, the Pentium G6950 is limited to the Intel H55/H57 chipsets and motherboards supporting them. Still, Intel H55 motherboards are comparable in price, starting at $70 US with most examples costing around $100 US. As an example, Gigabyte’s entry level 785G motherboard is just $10 US cheaper than their H55 motherboard. Therefore in terms of price, both platforms are going to cost you roughly the same amount.

For those already in possession of an older AM2/AM2+ motherboard who are seeking a cheap processor upgrade, the Phenom II X2 550 will be the way to go. However, should you be building a new computer from scratch we suggest going with the Intel Pentium G6950 processor.

Our reason for this is simple, the Pentium G6950 costs the same as the Phenom II X2 550, yet offers better operating efficiency and overclocking performance. The LGA1156 platform is also still very young and will continue to see new processors for at least the next few years, so investing in a H55 motherboard now for $100 US or less should be a safe investment.

Still, there is very little difference between the Pentium G6950/H55 and Phenom II X2 550/785G configurations that we used for this article, and both will cost you less than $200 US. Either option is powerful enough for typical day to day tasks, while they are both more than capable of tackling some serious gaming should that be on the agenda. Also, either platform makes for an ideal HTPC, though again we prefer the Pentium G6950 for its lower power consumption.

Reviewed By Steven Walton